Haunted House - Week 3: Angels & Demons

We're in our Haunted House series, and didn't Pastor Clay

do a good job last week?

Listen, I tell you something.

Last week was one of those days if something could

go wrong, something did go wrong. Amen, Listen. I called

the man to pray for him and encourage him. I

called him before service started, and he answered the phone,

and this is what he said.

He knew it was me.

He answered the phone and he said, this is not

the time and hung up on me. I thought, well,

I don't even know if church is going to happen

or not, so I tuned in online just to see

what was going on. But I want to tell you

that it is incredible for me as a pastor to

have somebody that can just handle it and will handle

it and take the bumps and the bruises. So I

thank you brother for your faithfulness and your diligence and serving.

But don't ever ask the phone like that again.

Ephesians chapter six.

We're going to talk.

Today about angels and demons today as we go through

our series about the supernatural, that kind of unseen invisible world.

And most of the time I like to tell you

what I'm gonna tell you, but I want to tell

you what I'm not going to tell you, first of all,

so that you're not waiting for things that I'm not

gonna get to today.

I'm not going to.

Talk about that scripture over there in Genesis where the

sons of God visited the daughters of men and they

had children.

But I tell you what you can do.

You can go to Sea Stone dot church slash town

hall and you can go ahead and give us those

questions if you have questions about those things. I know

that this week and next week there's gonna be lots

of questions. And then the Sunday after Christmas we're going

to be having another town hall. That's where we take

questions from the floor and we answer them live, and

that's going to be happening on December the twenty eighth.

But you go ahead and get a jump on everybody

else and go ahead and ask that question, Hey, what

does it mean? Because I know somebody has that question.

I'm not going to talk about the spirits chained under

the Euphrates river. I'm not gonna do that, So go

ahead and ask that question there. Amen, I'm not going

to talk about that.

There's lots of things I'm not going to talk about today.

I'm going to give you just kind of an overview

of angels and demons and what that means for us

as believers. And we're going to start in Ephesians chapter six.

Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse ten. Now listen, We're

also going to start here next week too, same passages

Scripture next week also, So so don't think that I've

lost my mind next week when I read the same.

Passage of scripture.

Ephesians chapter six, Verse ten says, finally, finally, it says,

if he's just he's wrote all this other stuff and

he's building up to this moment, it's like, here's here's

here's here's where the rubber meets the road. Finally, my brethren,

be strong in the Lord and in the power of

His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that

you may be a will to stand against the wiles

of the devil. For we wrestle, For we do not

wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against

spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up

the whole armor of God that you may be, that

you may be able to withstand and the evil day.

And having done all to stand, Father, we thank you

for your word. It's the only change agent that we have.

And I pray Lord that you help us understand our

opposition better today. Not only our opposition, Lord, but those

that you've called to come alongside us and help us,

Lord open our eyes to the supernatural. In Jesus name, Amen,

the Apostle. Paul writes this, and he says, Hey, there's

this war that's going on, and a lot of times

we get caught up in the fleshly side of it

because we see the manifestation of the invisible. In the visible,

we see the manifestations of those things, and we see

that the enemy uses people, and we get mad at

people and we lash out at people. But that's not

really who we're wrestling against. We're wrestling against that invisible world.

And then he begins to uh to share this this hierarchy,

this system, this organization that we're wrestling against, and he

talks about principalities, and he talks about powers, and he

talks about rulers, and he talks about all of these things,

and and all of those are different levels of the

organization of the enemy's kingdom.

Those are all what we would refer to today in today's

language demons.

That's that those dement those demonic forces that are set

to work against us. In Revelation chapter twelve, we begin

to see the origins of where this begins to unfold.

And when we when we see that these are real things.

Listen, I know that Hollywood really gives a view of

things that's not true a lot of times. And when

we look at the way the world begins to show

things and want to I just want to assure you

that given the choice, the enemy will work under the

shadow of darkness without ever revealing himself, and he will

work in subtle ways to move you and manipulate you

without revealing himself, because if he's ever seen, it's scary,

and people stand up against it.

Amen.

So when we don't, don't freak out, That's what I'm

trying to say. Don't freak out over today's message. Just

let me get to the end of it, and you're

gonna see that God has positioned you exactly where you

need to be.

To be a champion in the Kingdom of God.

In Revelation chapter twelve, verse seven, it says, and a

war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought

with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought,

but they did not prevail, nor was the place found

for them in heaven any longer. So the great Dragon

was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil,

and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast

to the earth, and his angels were cast with him.

And then it goes on and it says that that

one third of the stars were gathered by his tail,

And a lot of people say that that means that

one third of the angels fell for fell for what

the devil's ploy was. And Satan was filled with pride.

He didn't want to serve God any longer. He wanted

to be God. Come on, somebody. He wanted to be

the man. He didn't want to serve the man anymore.

He wanted to be the man. He wanted to be God.

He wanted to be in control, and God cast him out. Now,

let me just let's just pause for here, just a moment,

and let me just put a fault to you. How

many times have you wanted to be in charge? How

many times have you evenose, on purpose or inadvertently taken

charge that you have assumed the role of God in

your own life or in somebody else's life, and you

chose to take that role. Let me just let you

That's what Satan did. That's what he did. His pride

rose up and he said, I want to lead, I

want to be in charge. I want to call the

shots now. Luckily, for us, grace is a real thing.

Amen.

Luckily for us, God deals with us differently than he

does those celestial beings. He deals differently with us because

we're not them. Let me tell you what I mean

by that. When we die, we don't become angels. Angels

are created beings. They're created celestial beings. A person dies,

we don't become an angel. That's not what happens. We

stay us, come on somebody, and it's a good thing

because we are God's handmade creation, perfectly designed to worship

and serve Him and to carry his message and to

be His authority on the face of the planet. That's

why God created you, because angels were not that. So

as we do that, and as we navigate that and

we work through those things, we understand that God's plan

for us is different.

Than his plan for them.

God's plan for us is different than those other celestial beings.

And we don't have to worry because those two things

are not connected by authority, because we have authority over

those things.

One person.

Okay, that's all right, So let's talk about Let's talk

about the different levels of demonic activity in people's lives.

The first level of demonic activity.

And listen, these are not my words.

These are people that over the years that have named

these theological concepts. The first because I wouldn't have called

it this because this just reminds me of roach bugs.

But uh, the first level is infestation. Infestation and normally

when we talk about in the demonic roum, when we

talk about infestation, we're talking about usually geographical areas. You

know that that classic haunted house. Come on somebody where

those weird things happen. That's not Aunt Sally's ghost, that

didn't make it across.

That's not what that is. Those are listen.

To be absent from the body is to be present

with the Lord, and they don't have time to move

a chair and say boo on the way out. There's

no unfinished business. At the only unfinished business is that

the devil got cast out, and he's mad, and he

is the first tear. His job is to terrorize you.

His job is to bring fear into your life, because

fear is the enemy of faith, and faith is the

currency of the Kingdom by which we move ahead and

mature spiritually, and he wants to defeat your faith with fear.

So the first level is infestation.

How many of you you know those places you've been somewhere,

like on vacation, You've been to a place where it

just feels and a lot of people just describe it

just feels dark. He just feel somewhere. We went to

New Orleans one time and listen, you know New Orleans

Bourbon Street. I mean that's all you hear about. So

you know, we decide, hey, got to see this, right,

I mean, you've got experiences. So we start walking down

through there and there's this guy behind me and uh,

he's probably six seven, and he doesn't have a shirt on.

He's got these leather.

Like I don't know, straps down and he's holding up

a skirt, big tall boost and he's bumping into the

back of me. He's bumping into the back of it,

and I'm thinking, oh, I don't know what he thinks

is trying to happen back there, but I don't like it.

Come on, somebody, And so I grabbed my wife and

I say, we got to get out of here. So

we take off down this You know you're upset when

your choice of evasion is a dark, shady alley. Come on, somebody.

But for me, that seemed safer than that. So we

take off down this island. We get to the end

of the island. When we spill out, we're right there

on the river, and there's like a thousand fortune tellers,

tarot card readers, and it just felt dark. Now, I'm

just gonna be honest with you. I felt safer there

than I did over there, though, because I wasn't worried

about what they had, Because I knew the authority God

had already put on the inside of me. I was

less worried about that than I was the physical intention

of a hue human being. Because I didn't I surely

didn't want to fight him. Come on, somebody, he would

have whooped me, quite confident that was how that would

have gone down. I'd probably pulled his skirt off but

he would have whooped me.

Amen.

But there's just a darkness over that area, and that

is an infestation. It's a gathering of those forces that

just complicate things on the spiritual level because of the

influence of evil and the plan of the enemy.

That first level is infestation. The next is oppression.

Oppression is an outward force, since when the enemy puts

pressure on you and tries to drive you by the

forces in your life and the complications that he causes,

those thoughts that he whispers into your mind, that you

don't know where the origin of that thought is, and.

That is oppression.

And listen, even believers can be oppressed of the enemy.

Even believers can.

Have that spiritual pressure that comes from the outside. Now,

I want to assure you that it is not the

devil himself. Let me say that again. It's not the

devil himself. The reason is because none of these beings

are omnipresent. None of these beings have the ability to

be at be in more than one place at a time.

They are I guess uni present, they're just in one

place at one time. There, they're there, and he's not

messing with you. The chief that the devil himself, Satan Lucifer,

whatever you refer.

To him as.

He's he's toppling kingdoms. That's where he's at, that's what

he's doing. But he does have a very sophisticated organization

that they want you broke, busted, and disgusted. Specially if

you're a believer. They want to point to you and say.

That's what believing gets you.

Depressed, stressed out, broke, sick, worried all the time, not

able to carry on a conversation because we're always worried

about something else. That's where the enemy wants you. And

that is the sophisticated hierarchy that he has created around you.

So there's oppression. And then in the last form is possession.

That's like the one that Hollywood likes, right, possession. It's like,

you know, headspins around and the green vomit comes out.

That's like the clear you know, that's like what we see.

But I want to tell you that most often that

doesn't look like that either. In today's world. That's not

what that looks like most of the time. Now, it's

very sophisticated looking. Now, it's very seductive, it's very polished

and beautiful. It always says the right thing at the

right time. It takes advantage of situations and circumstances because

to create maximum damage, you need maximum influence.

Now can it look like that? For sure it.

Can, And in places in the world it does look

like that. A demon possession here in America, I think,

looks very different than demon to possession looks in the.

Third world, because the third world.

Those manifestations, and that's scary. It looks very different there.

In this church, however, in this building, I remember times

where we have encountered demon possession that manifested.

Itself like that.

And if that ever happens, and probably will happen at

some point, as the spiritual movings get stronger, they get

WHOA almost fell into baptism pool. Whoo And listen, that

was not a demon pushing me either, I was just me,

Miss Stefan. Sorry, Glenn, I'm going to stay back here

for the rest of the day. The opposing spiritual intensity

turns up too. As we feel this undercurrent, this momentum,

we call it a spiritual momentum that we feel building

in our church today, in our worship experiences, in your lives,

there's also an opposing force that will also ratchet. And

when you see those things, listen, I want to just

tell you, don't worry about those things. Don't be afraid

of those things. Don't think, oh my gosh, if that

happens and they cast that thing out, that's gonna end

up at my house. Don't worry about that. If you're

a born again believer, you cannot be possessed because light

and darkness cannot inhabit the same place. Light overshines darkness.

You're sealed and you're protected.

Now.

I know there's people that are gonna say I'm wrong,

but that's okay. They can be wrong if they want

to be, because believers can't be demon possessed.

Okay. He can oppress.

You to no ends, but he cannot have control over you.

If you've given control of yourself to him. If you

call Jesus Lord, nothing else can be. So don't worry

if those things happen, just say, oh wow, we had

a great church service. That weird stuff happened. Listen, video it. Listen.

If that happens, I want you to pull your phone out.

I want you to video.

It, and I want you to put it on Twitter.

I want you to put it on Instagram. I want

you to put it on TikTok. I want you to

put it on Facebook, because we want people to know

that we serve a supernatural God that can beat every

supernatural enemy. We're not trying to hide what God does

in God's victories.

We want to celebrate those things. When you get.

Healed, you need to go on If you don't have

social media, you need to open account on every platform

and tell.

People that God healed you.

And then when they call you crazy and a liar

and everything, just invite him to church. In March chapter five,

verse six, we see one of the most famous demon

possessions in scripture.

We call him the gallery into moniac.

In March chapter five, verse six, it says when Jesus

saw from Afar, he ran and work. When he saw

Jesus from Afar, he ran and worshiped him. And he

cried out with a loud voice and said, what have

I to do with you, Jesus, the son of the

Most High God? I implore you by God that you.

Do not torment me.

Before he said to him, come out of the man

unclean spirit. Then he asked him, what is your name?

And he answered saying my name is Legion, for we

are many. Also, he begged him earnestly that he would

not send them out of the country. He said, don't,

don't don't send us, don't send us out of the country.

We like it here.

I want you to I want you to listen to

the words behind the words. Don't send us away from here,

because this is where we like it, this is where

we want to be. If you'll leave us alone, we'll

come out of him and we'll just get the next victim.

And then and then they ask a strange thing that said, hey,

can we go into those pigs, And Jesus said, yeah, yeah,

you can go into the pigs. That's fine, go into

the pigs. If you want to be a pig, go

be a pig. Pigs run down the hill, drown themselves

in the water, and it causes a huge talk of

the town. People get beginning to point towards Jesus and say, listen,

we don't know what it is about that guy, but

something's happening. When that's spiritual warfare happens and we begin

to see those manifestations, it always points back to Jesus.

It always points back to Jesus. Everything always points.

Back to Jesus.

And when we're talking about the demonic realm and all

of the fear and misunderstandings, I want you to know

that you know that, you know that in Psalm chapter eight,

verse four, this is what it says. Remember that demons

started as angels, even the devil himself, look at me,

The devil himself started as an angel.

They are falling angels.

They're angels that made a bad decision. And in Psalm

chapter eight, verse four, it says, what is a man

that you're mindful of him?

And the son of man that you for you have.

Made him a little lower than the angels, and have

crowned him with glory and honor. This passage of scripture,

that word that's translated angel, there is the word alohem.

It's the word alohem.

There is a theory that says that in the original translation,

in the original translating of scripture, that that that King

James got a little uncomfortable with it being we're created

a little lower than God, and he said, we're created

a little lower than angels. But that word alohem is

often translated as false gods as well. There's there's a

lot of translations for that. But I want you to

understand that you have authority over every unclean and clean

spirit because you are seated with Jesus in heavenly places.

You are an air and a joint air. You are.

You are part of.

The Kingdom of God, a son of God, and He

has given you authority over those things. And I just

want to tell you that you don't have to worry

about the things that everybody else worries about. It's a

lie that the enemy can come and those demonic forces

can hurt you.

That is just an absolute lie.

You know. I used to wake up at night and

listen from time. There's seasons where where you're tormented in

the supernatural.

I used to wake up at night and have those

feelings and that that that that fear, and I just and.

I want to begin to pray and speak and tell

things to go. I want you to know that as

I've grown now, when I wake up and I feel

like that, I just go back to sleep. Let's go

back to sleep, because I am a child of God

because he has got me covered and the enemy can't

touch me. The person that does more harm to me

than anybody is me. I can't look back over my

life and put my finger on anything that the.

Devil made me do. I can't put my.

Finger on anything that the devil calls to happen that

was beyond any control and authority that I had over

the situation. I can't find one thing. Did the enemy

sink that boat and try to kill me? Maybe, but

I could swim.

Amen.

Did the enemy cause that person to pull out in

front of me? Yeah, but I have breaks. Does the

enemy try to worry me and convince me that things

are falling off the rails? Yes, listen, in the greatest

times of this church, in the highest highs of this church,

the enemy will convince me that the wheels are falling off.

But I realize it's all God's anyway. My life is God's.

Your life belongs to the Father.

Your life it's in the hands of Christ.

And if he's gone with you, you get rewarded.

Don't let the enemy threaten you with going to heaven.

Celebrate the fact that when you're.

Done, you got the greatest retirement plan that anybody could

ever think about. He paves his streets with what you're

putting in your four oh one k.

Oh.

I gotta go quick, let me just I'll go jump

to angels real fast.

Fast, Clay.

I'm sorry, I'm not gonna get done today, and we're.

Not gonna finish next week.

So ask all the questions you want Sea Stone dot

church slash town hall. In Isaiah chapter six, it's an

encounter that the prophet Isaiah has with these angelic beings.

Says in the year that King Usiah died, I saw

the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up

in the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above it stood seraphim.

Each had each each one had six wings with two.

He covered his face with two, he covered his feet

with two. He flew and one cried to another, say, Holy, Holy, Holy,

is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full

of his glory. This picture of angelic beings, there are

there are three different angelic beings that we know are

named in scripture, and probably countless others, but there are

three that we know for sure. There are the cherubs,

the seraphs, and they're the archangels. Those are the three

angels that are mentioned in scripture, and their primary purposes

are messenger. We three we see throughout scripture where where

a message will come to someone through an angel. We

see it with Gideon, we see it with Abraham, We

see it time and time again. We see it with

with with Jacob, we see it with eyes that we

see it with all of those Old Testament figures, and

even in the New Testament, we see that angels come

and they deliver a message and they speak. They're messengers

because oftentimes we're so busy that we can't listen. It's

not because the Holy Spirit won't speak to you or

can't speak to you. It's because if God needs to

get you a message, he will by all means get

you the message. So they play the role of messenger,

and they look all different ways. Many times people see

angels and they look very much like human beings, and

there's no discernible difference until after the encounter and people

realize that they've been in the presence of the supernatural.

So they're messengers. And then there are attendants, those ministering spirits,

those spirits that we see delivering food, those angels that

come and they show up just in the nick of

time to thwart the plan of the enemy or whatever

those things is. We refer to them as our guardian angels,

Come on, somebody, those angels that are that are there

those times where we hear those testimonies of somebody being

there and doing something, and then we look back and

there's no way that anybody was there. Come on, somebody.

We've all read those Chicken Soup for the Soul stories, right,

and I believe they're more than stories. It's the reality

of the supernatural stepping out of the invisible into the visible.

And many times when those things happen, it's preceded by

that moment of clarity and worship and awareness of God

where someone will say and I knew that it was

the end, and I looked to Heaven and I said,

thank you Jesus. And then the supernatural being shows up

and begins to bring assistance to attend to those needs

that are present. And then the third role of angels

is warrior. That they're fighting in the invisible, that they're

doing warfare over your life, that they're beating back principalities

and powers, and they are working on your behalf. And

the reality is is that we serve Clay, you guys

can come and get ready. The reality is is that

in scriptural terms, we serve a jealous God.

Look at me. We serve a jealous God, a.

God who created you for no other reason than to

worship him the purpose of yours. Now, I don't if

this makes you feel bad about yourself. You don't truly

understand who God is. But God created you to worship him.

He created you to show him honor and to bow

our knee towards his lordship. That is the purpose of

our creation, not so that we can make money and

get famous and drive a fast car and have a

big house. He created us to worship Him. And in

those moments where we are worshiping him is our moments

of greatest fulfillment.

And as we worship Him.

We look at that great, great scene of worship in

Heaven in Revelation chapter four, where those creatures are there

around the throne and the elders are bowing down before

the throne and they're giving glory to God. And he's

a jealous God, and he'll share his glory with no one.

But the moment we begin to give.

God glory, the moment we begin to tilt our head

towards Heaven and glorify Jesus, Say you God, I.

Give you glory.

Not because of what you've done, but because of who

you are.

I give you glory.

That things may look bleak now, God, but I know

you've got me. I know you're fighting on my side.

I know that you want the best for me. God,

I give you glory. I give you glory. I give

you glory. There's nobody else that deserves glory. Only you, Jesus,

you deserve glory because and those angels are surrounding the

throne and they're giving glory right now in the moment you.

Step in and you begin to give God.

Listen to the moment you step in and you begin

to give God glory.

That means there's a space released.

And in your greatest times of need, and you begin

to give God glory. You begin to step in, and

that rises before the throne room of God, and God

looks and says, Oh, there's the glory that I deserve.

You go get their stuff, and he dispatches those attending spirits,

those ministering spirits on your behalf to come and fill

that point of need, to bring that miracle into your

life in that moment of time. Not because they perform miracles,

but they're the carriers of miracles and we begin to

give God glory in because he doesn't want to share

that glory. The moment we do, he can release those

ministering spirits that are there giving him glory.

God shows up.

Have an encounter with the supernatural, and he doesn't need

angels to do that, but he chooses to do it.

He doesn't need angels to do anything. He chooses it.

He doesn't need us to do anything. He chooses it.

Because he's God and he has a system and he

has a way that brings him pleasure. I don't write

the book, I just tell you what it says. And

as those angels are ministering, they begin to look around

and they realize that you're different from them. We like

to say it this way, that we have a song

that the angels cannot sing, the Song of the Redeemed.

Angels were created to worship for specific tasks. We were

created to worship, but our worship is pure because we

have a free will and a choice to do it.

The angels see our relationship with God and they desire

to have that kind of relationship. They desire to have

a relationship the way we do. Because redemption is outside

of possibility.

For them.

It is created for you and for me. And the

song of the Redeemed is one that we could shout

from the rooftops. And if you're here today, I want

you to realize that with all the glorification of angels,

with all of the pictures and all the figurines, and

probably the topper on top of your Christmas tree, you

probably either have a star or an angel. Come on, somebody.

With all of that, the Lord says, you're more special.

You're more special, you are more special. And to receive

this relationship with Jesus that the angels can never have,

all you have to do is making the Lord of

your life.

To confess your sin and bow your heart to him.

If you're here today and you've never asked Jesus to

forgive you of your sins, you've never asked him to

be the lord of your life.

Now is your moment. Jesus laid down his.

Life so that you can live with every head bowed

and every eye closed.

All over the building.

If you're here today, just say, pastor pray for me.

I want to invite Jesus into my life. Wanted to

forgive me of my sins.

Be my Lord.

If that's you. Just slip up your hand and say

that's me. Pastor, pray for me. I want to I

want to surrender my life to Jesus today. I wanted

to wash me clean and make me a brand new creation,

wash away my guilt, of my shame.

I'm gonna give it just another moment.

Slip your hand up if that's you, If you don't know,

if you died right now, you would go to heaven.

This is your chance. Just slip up your hand and

say that's me. Pastor, pray for me.

Amen.

Now, in the name of Jesus, I pray that you

all draw us close to you, that you draw us

all close to you, Lord, that you work and move.

Like only you can. Father, wash us clean, make us new.

Lord. We love you, and we thank you in Jesus

Mighty mighty name. Amen, Amen, and Amen

Everybody standing to your feet.